A long weekend in East Bali - Tirta Gangga and arrival in Amed - Day 2

We arranged to meet our friends at Tirta Gangga, a royal water palace not far from Sideman.  Alexa was particularly excited about this plan because she has been studying Tirta Gangga in a "Balinese geography" unit at school.

As you walk through the entrance way, a tableau of pools, fountains and statuary spreads before you.  You can't help but say "wow" and "amazing," which we did.   This prompted a Balinese guy at the entrance to exclaim in heavily accented English: "amazing!", "marvelous!",  "fantastic!", "wonderful!" in hilarious imitation of the reactions he has heard countless times from tourists as they walk through the portal.

The kids had a fun time running around the grounds, hopping on the stepping stones in the ponds, checking out the statues.  For a small, additional entrance fee you were allowed to swim in one of the spring-fed pools.  We changed into our swim suits and hopped in.  We even had the pool to ourselves for a while.

photo credit: Alexa

photo by Lynn

We then headed to the fishing village of Amed.  Amed is the newest area of Bali to be developed as a tourist destination.  Ten years ago there were no phone lines, the roads were only paved a couple of years before the phone lines came in, and Internet access has only been available for the past few years.  Not long ago, Amed was one of the poorest places in Bali, with the locals eking out a living from fishing and salt-making.

The pace of life in Amed is still slow, and the locals aren't yet jaded by tourists.  There is a lot of intermingling as the density of tourist accommodations is still low, and they are often located, as ours was, right next to a fishing village.

Our hotel, called Life in Amed, is owned by a Green School family.  Our separate bungalows were right on the beach, just a few feet from working fishing boats.  When we arrived, the kids headed straight to the beach to play in the sand.

our bungalow

There was a group of local kids playing on the beach.  Our friend Tom soon had the local girls gathered round as he taught them a funny camp song.

Then with a little encouragement from Lynn, Alexa started teaching the girls the hand clapping game that was all the rage at Green School.

Alexa had a great time playing with the girls.  She remarked, "you can really tell what their personalities are like from playing with them even though you can't understand what they say."  She wants to make friendship bracelets for all of them and come back to Amed so she can give the bracelets to them.

Posted by Nat, edited by Lynn.